ArcaOS

ArcaOS is the name of an unreleased PC operating system based on OS/2, that is going to be published by Arca Noae, LLC. It will include several additions and accompanying software not present in the IBM version of the system.

ArcaOS will be a 32-bit operating system which runs on the x86 processor architecture (real or virtualized). It is based on the IBM OS/2 Warp 4.52 binary level (Also known as Merlin Convenience Pack 2 or MCP2). <ref name="Arca-01">ArcaOS Website [2]</ref> <ref name="Arca-02">Blue Lion Announcement at Warpstock 2015 [3]</ref>

Contents

History

Origins

ArcaOS was formally announced for the first time at October 23 of 2015 at the Warpstock 2015 event (An OS/2 and eComStation user group event) under the code name "Blue Lion" by Arca Noae's Managing Member, Lewis Rosenthal. <ref name="Arca-02">Blue Lion Announcement at Warpstock 2015 [4]</ref> <ref name="Arca-03">OS/2: Blue Lion to be the next distro of the 28-year-old OS [5]</ref>

Some of the features announced at the announcement time for Blue Lion was <ref name="Arca-02">Blue Lion Announcement at Warpstock 2015 [6]</ref>:

A new SMP kernel.

A new pre-boot menu.

A new OS installer that will support install from USB flash memory and network install.

On the Warpstock 2015 conference it was initially announced for the 3Q of 2015 but it was also said that release dates may change. <ref name="Arca-02">Blue Lion Announcement at Warpstock 2015 [7]</ref>. There was also no pre-orders at that time.

The name of "ArcaOS" was published for the first at a Tech Republic article <ref name="Arca-05">OS/2 resurrected: Blue Lion becomes ArcaOS, details emerge for upcoming release [8]</ref> on May 26 of 2016, while the ArcaOS domain was bought on December 20 of 2015. On that article Lewis Rosenthal announced that the first release of ArcaOS will be version 5.0 because it relates to the latest version of OS/2 Warp which was 4.52. It was also said that ArcaOS 5.1 will prioritize French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Dutch versions of the operating system.

It was told initially <ref name="Arca-05">OS/2 resurrected: Blue Lion becomes ArcaOS, details emerge for upcoming release [9]</ref> that ArcaOS will be sold in two edition:ArcaOS Commercial Edition intended for the commercial use of the platform and ArcaOS Personal Edition with six months of support at a lower price. Pricing was not detailed at that time.